Yesterday was the United Nation’s “International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking” and President Joko Widodo used the occasion to escalate his tough talk against drug traffickers.
At an event marking the occasion yesterday in Jakarta, the president once again declared that the country was in the midst of a “drug emergency” and cited the statistic (which has long been proven to have no basis in actual evidence) that 40-50 people in Indonesia die because of drugs each and every day.
Jokowi said he wanted decisive, coordinated action by all law enforcement agencies to put an end to the country’s drug crisis.
“Beat them, hit them. If the laws allowed it, bang (shoot them). Remember, bapak dan ibu, 5.1 million of our young people have died because of drugs. Fortunately the law does not allow (us to just shoot them), if it was allowed I would directly command the Chief of Police and the Chief of BNN (the National Narcotics Agency) to do so.”
Perhaps the president saw how his new Filipino counterpart, Rodrigo Duterte, shot into office on promises that he would have criminals, especially drug dealers, shot on sight and was hoping to earn some “Punisher” popularity points as well.
But unfortunately for him, he is constrained by pesky Indonesian law, which only allows for drug dealers to be executed by his firing squads after they have gone through the country’s court system. His administration has announced plans to execute 16 more people for drug crimes this year, after the end of the holy month of Ramadan.
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